Protests Without Teargas: Portrayals of Campus Activism in the Print Media 1996-2004
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Date
2007-04-05
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Abstract
This study examines how student activists were portrayed by the campus daily newspaper during the time period 1996-2004. Duke University in Durham, North Carolina is the subject of this qualitative case study, which uses the dramaturgical theory of sociologist Erving Goffman as its framework. The issues taken on by student activists at Duke during this time period include the anti-sweatshop movement, race relations on campus, identity issues of African Americans, Asian Americans, women and political conservatives, and the Sudanese civil war. The Chronicle, Duke's daily campus newspaper, portrays the student activists in a number of roles that are categorized as campus⁄education roles, political roles, and social roles. The campus⁄education roles have been identified as educator, campus leader, object of ridicule and satire (as viewed by their fellow students), partner in university governance, and change agent or catalyst. The political roles are concerned citizen (both on campus and in the larger community), policy maker (for campus policy as well as local⁄national⁄international policy), representative⁄diplomat⁄spokesperson, idealist (someone who acts beyond or above politics), political agent, person with power and consumer advocate. The social roles identified by the study are moral conscience or compass, moral bully, social critic, champion of the underdog, social support network, and symbol maker. It is recognized that multiple roles can be played simultaneously. The study places the issues and roles of the period 1996-2004 into the history of student activism in American higher education.
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student activism, protest
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Degree
EdD
Discipline
Higher Education Administration
